Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Mexican Gothic - Mexikói rémtörténet by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

768 reviews

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I put off reading this despite everyone raving about it because I’m stubborn and now I’m ANGRY WITH MYSELF, because there’s a reason this book is so popular!

I have nothing bad to say about it. This was a decadent sort of unsettling that had me guessing right up to the very end. I had such a blast reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Incest, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Child death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

xhochi's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

lrgluck's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Incest, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

pbeeandj's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Incest, Racism, Sexual assault, Vomit, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

elisasifaa's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Cannibalism, and Murder

brittsbooknook's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

1.5

This was a book club read. This book has very intense content; it is not for everyone. In general, horror is not my go-to genre. If you are a Gothic horror fan this may be your cup of tea it just wasn't mine. 

What I did like: 
-Some of the characters - Catalina, Francis & Noemi.
-The cover is beautiful.
-There is a very well written "Gothic" feel/vibe.

This style of horror was very gruesome, graphic and trigger-warning heavy. This book was slow the first 65%/70%; it's a very dark story and definitely gives a Gothic "trapped" feeling. Nightmares, manipulation, gas-lighting, gruesomeness, evil characters, horrible acts done against people.

Triggers: cannibalism, incest, being buried alive, sexual violence; and the gaslighting in this book is so stressful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

kgc8's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Wow, the author does an amazing job of creating a menacing and creepy atmosphere. From the moment you enter High Place, you can feel something is wrong. Throughout the story, it's hard to pinpoint the source of the discomfort and the author kept me guessing. In contrast to the awful house and its denizens, Noemi is a plucky and courageous heroine - she knows when to fight and when to play along - and it's easy to root for her. Horror is not my favorite genre, but this is a really well done story and lingered in my mind after I finished.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Incest, Sexual assault, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Misogyny and Terminal illness

Minor: Cannibalism

sophiesometimesreads's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was my first experience with a horror book, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt as I don't have anything within-genre to compare to. I was surprised that I wasn't as scared as I expected to be, though the book was atmospheric and eery and creepy, and I did quite like that. This is not a negative against the book, just a diversion from my assumptions of the genre.

I had a good time with this book. I enjoyed the overall plotline and the characters were intriguing, though many were unlikeable (as they were supposed to be). The resolution to the mystery component was not what I expected but made sense in context of the story, and a few things I'd noticed in the earlier story tied into it.

The main way in which this book fell down a bit for me was in the pacing. The first two thirds were pretty slow, and we took a long time to get little snippets of information and hints towards what was going on. In saying this, I was still intrigued enough to keep reading and I'm glad I did, as the last third was really interesting. I just wanted a little bit of the pace of the last third in the rest of the book.

The actual style of writing, though, was really good and I enjoyed how atmospheric Silvia Moreno-Garcia's writing was, I'd definitely be open to picking up one of her books again. I'm also intending to read more horror books in the future. I'd heard this book was a good introduction to the horror genre and I agree with that statement, so if you're looking to dabble in horror then this book could be a good place to start!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Rape

theliteraryteapot's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.75

I wanted to try the horror genre and I have to say I didn't feel there was much horror in the first 200 pages. And then lol.

This was a page-turner and it's been so long since I didn't have to force myself to read. Because of its genre, I knew there'd be lots of trigger warnings but I enjoyed the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide and Colonisation

lola218_'s review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation